Brush up your Shakespeare...Poetry Corner

Here's the latest offering from the poetry corner - it's a poem by Shakespeare and one I like for it's final lines which are very uplifting.

Sonnet XXIX

When in dispute with fortune and mens eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcaste state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my faith,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least,

Yet in this state myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the Lark at break of day arising,

From sullen earth sings hymns at heavens gate,

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

There is a lot in this poem, the lines following on each other in a natural rhythm, speaking of things that we all experience. The metaphor of the lark arising from the sullen earth makes us feel like flying up into a bright blue sky on a sunny morning. Each word is so precise and conveys so much that it seems impossible that any other could take it's place. Shakespeare isn't known as one of the best writers ever for nothing...